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Power Word: Shield
http://i60.thottbot.com/en/Interface/Icons/Spell_Holy_PowerWordShield.jpg Overview One of the Priest's best spells. Shield is excellent in PvE and PvP, solo and grouping. Cast it on your tanks in a group or any character taking unwanted fire. While soloing you can shield yourself everytime you prepare to engage an enemy, often times preventing you from ever taking damage. Shield's only downside is that it can't cast be on the same target more than once every 15 seconds, so if it absorbs too much damage, the target will take damage. The Improved Power Word: Shield talent can increase the damage absorbed by the shield by 15% for 3 talent points. (5% secs more damage per point). Also, 10% of any +damage/healing gear will add to the damage absorbed by the shield. While shield is up you're not taking any hits. This means your spell casting is not interrupted. Used strategically this can allow you to get off spells that take a while to cast even while being hit. This spell does not absorb damage from environmental effects, such as fall damage, and lava damage. This spell does not cause any threat. However, it will put you an enemy's aggro list above players with whom it only has contact aggro (i.e. from a Body-Pull). Notes about effects on various classes This spell is ideal for casting on you or the party cloth types that draw aggro which will buy time to allow the tank to taunt stuff back onto themselves and off members of the cloth, so to speak. --Dga Mana efficiency and time efficiency is also to be considered. Totally maxed out Power Word: Shield gives 1.88 Hp/Mana, is instant cast, 4 second cooldown, and the same target can only be shielded once every 15 seconds, if you have max Improved PW:S talent, whereas the biggest Greater Heal with the Improved Healing talent maxed ( 5 points ) gives 3.42 HP/Mana with 3.5 second cast time (Master Healer Talent 5 points), no cooldown. Or put another way, if you had 2500 mana to spend on health for your tank PW:S would give them 4710 HP over 75 seconds (62.8/sec) and Heal would give them 9280 HP over 10.5 seconds (883.86/sec) without reducing their rage generation. The flipside of this consideration is the amount of threat generated by a priest through healing that many hitpoints in a mere 10.5 seconds. This in contrast with the threat generated through healing the lesser amount of hitpoints, due to shield, and the timespan over which this is done. --Nakasawa Power Word: Sheild (PW:S) in group situations I have repeatedly run into priests who over-use and mis-use this powerful, yet specialized spell. It's extremely important to realize that this spell is limited in it's use and can spell devastation if used incorrectly. : * First and foremost, PW:S is NOT, I repeat, NOT a heal spell... and as such, should not be use in place of one. If PW:S is cast on a player who will not be taking damage in the next 30 seconds, it is a >>>waste of mana<<<. If PW:S is cast on a player who has less than full health, that health is only healed when: 1) you use more mana to cast a heal on them; or 2) combat ends and they begin regenerating health on their own... which brings me back to the second sentence of this paragraph. : * Second, PW:S should be reserved for three, and ONLY three situations (NO EXCEPTIONS!): :: 1) When there is no possible way in all of heaven and earth that you will be able to heal your target before they die. This means they will die within the next 2 seconds if you don't use PW:S. If they aren't going to die in the next 2 seconds, you had better be casting a heal spell. :: 2) When spell casting, channeling and (god forbid) fleeing cannot afford to be be slowed. Occasionally, there are times when you will be under attack. Yes, it happens to the best of us. IMPORTANT: When this happens, cast Fade. Sometimes, albeit rare, that will not be enough to make the attackers divert their attention. During these rare, unfortunate times, it is permissable to cast PW:S on yourself to allow for a brief moment of un-interrupted spell-casting. -OR- Some classes (mages and warlocks) have spells that are cast over a specific amount of time called channeling spells. These spells can be easily interrupted when damage is taken, so a shield can help them channel the entire spell. -OR- When you turn your tail and flee from enemies, it is useful to cast PW:S on yourself or a friend to help them avoid the Dazed effect. :: 3) When you are about to start a tough fight and your warrior or mage/warlock needs all the extra HP they can get. Called Pre-Shielding, this tactic can give you that extra edge at the beginning of a tough fight and should allow you to take some time to regenerate the mana used before the fight during the fight's opening moments (when the warrior should be generating aggro on the bad-guys. IMPORTANT: You may have noticed that casting PW:S causes a lot of threat and can make things more likely to attack you. As such, DO NOT begin applying PW:S when 1) your puller is shooting his/her gun; 2) your mage is casting thier first spell; 3) at any time after the bad guys start running towards you. If needed, request that your pullers not pull until they see the shields in place. IMPORTANT (#2): Even for the biggest boss fights in the world, you don't have to shield your entire party. Please read the second sentence of the paragraph beginning "First and foremost" if this confuses you. Like I said before, PW:S is an amazing and powerful spell when it is used correctly. However, it is mana intensive and should be used in special situations, not general healing. Functionality ---- Category:Priests Category:Priest Spells